Fingerstyle on speed - I mean the tempo!

Hardy

Hardy

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Even though I’ve been playing almost exclusively fingerstyle for the past 22 years and only use a pick occasionally, I keep reaching my limits when it comes to playing fast.

I’m now going to use a pick more often. Nevertheless, I also want to work on improving my speed when playing without a pick. What are your tips? Do you know of any good tutorials or resources online? I’d love to hear your feedback!
 
The exercise for this is really boring. Play to a beat or metronome at a speed that is comfortable to you at first. Just play the same 16th note all the time and keep it even.
After some time, you will sense fatigue. Likely in your wrist and forearm. You will focus the exercise on keeping the fatigue from occuring. This is done by relaxing your picking hand more.
You see Hardy, it is not a mechanical problem your fingers can go fast enough. It is more a case of not straining.

Once you can comfortably play tight for 4 or 5 minutes straight, increase the speed of that beat or metronome slightly. Rinse and repeat.

To make it less boring, try to fiddle around with accents and groove, but really the objective is to stay tight.
 
Joe Dart is a master of tightness, so is Chris Wolstenholme. Some of their tunes are great for practicing once you get the hang of it.

 
Repetition of a motor skill

make it musical - arpeggios, scales , ii-V7-I , blues changes , minor blues changes , Rhythm Changes

Hardy can you read music?
 
Hardy said:
Even though I’ve been playing almost exclusively fingerstyle for the past 22 years and only use a pick occasionally, I keep reaching my limits when it comes to playing fast.

I’m now going to use a pick more often. Nevertheless, I also want to work on improving my speed when playing without a pick. What are your tips? Do you know of any good tutorials or resources online? I’d love to hear your feedback!
Click to expand...
It all depends on how much bpm 🤥
I guess you are playing with 3 fingers??
Skipping one of those 16th ever so often gives time to relax your muscles.
 
Foal30 said:
Repetition of a motor skill

make it musical - arpeggios, scales , ii-V7-I , blues changes , minor blues changes , Rhythm Changes

Hardy can you read music?
Click to expand...
Indeed, it's how I learn new songs on the guitar. Tab, start out slow, get better/faster as my brain/fingers learn the patterns.
 
BrusselsBass said:
It all depends on how much bpm 🤥
I guess you are playing with 3 fingers??
Skipping one of those 16th ever so often gives time to relax your muscles.
Click to expand...
Not using 3 finger technique so far. I found this interesting vid. I like that the guy is explaining it all slowly and relaxed:




In this video there are also a lot of advices but imo he is running too fast through the topic:

 
Some years back, I had a broken index finger and played for a while with middle and ring finger ... so that was a good training.
3 fingers really help to get speed whilst leaving the muscles relaxed.
I like Mark in the 2nd video - he has tons of good educational videos. Funny northern accent (guessing Liverpool)
 
I now tried it for one hour. 3 fingers, always starting on the ring finger, then middle, then index. 4/4. Now the ring finger needs its first break... I mean rest! 😅

That is completely new to me. When I increase speed it happens that I fall back into the other direction (index - middle finger) and then I throw it up.

This will take time.
 
I could never get the hang of the 3 finger thing. Growing up I basically taught myself to play by playing along to albums. I loved Maiden so I learned so much of Harris’ stuff that I just built up the speed with 2. The thing that would sometimes trip me up with his stuff wasn’t the speed, but the way he’d write riffs that took a lot is string skipping.
 
Hardy said:
I now tried it for one hour. 3 fingers, always starting on the ring finger, then middle, then index. 4/4. Now the ring finger needs its first break... I mean rest! 😅

That is completely new to me. When I increase speed it happens that I fall back into the other direction (index - middle finger) and then I throw it up.

This will take time.
Click to expand...
But this is really nice also for playing Triolen ;)
Play it slow and steady first. I learned the technique of Alex Webster (Cannibal Corpse bass player), later on you can dramatically increase speed ;)
 
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